Stan Lee and David Pearson gone on the same day. What a double whammy.

Pearson was the greatest driver of his generation, not Petty. Even Petty said he was a better driver than Petty. If he'd decided to run all the races instead of cherry-picking the ones that paid the most (can't blame him, as the schedule had 60+ races back then, in every backwoods hick town with a bullring), he'd easily have more championships than Petty's 7.